Sometimes the smallest things lead us to the bigger picture. Ohio University senior engineering Physics & Astronomy Honors Tutorial College student Sara Sand said she was inspired by the possibilities of nanoscale research.

“It’s amazing in the same way that people who study astronomy, the mystery is in how far away and how big it is,” Sand said. “In material and solar cell research, the mystery is in how small it is. It all fits in the palm of your hand, but I don’t understand everything about it. I think that’s a really interesting and a cool thing to explore.”

Sand currently works under the supervision of OHIO Physics and Astronomy Professor and Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena member Dr. Martin Kordesch. She studies the use of carbon nanotubes in the active electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells, which make up solar panels and can be used to harness energy from the sun to generate electricity.

While in Germany, Sand worked under the supervision of Ph.D. student Julian Kalb, who studies hybrid solar cells. Sand studied titanium dioxide layers of hybrid solar cells to better characterize their electrical properties, which she said are currently not well understood.

While in Boulder, Sand used computer programming to analyze the mathematical parameters of turbine wakes under the supervision of NOAA researchers Yelena Pichugina and Alan Brewer. Wind turbines harness power from the wind as electricity. Sand calculated length and velocity deficits of turbine wakes, based on data generated from from two Doppler lidars (which use lasers for high-resolution mapping measurements) located in the Columbia River Basin in Oregon.

Sand is graduating this spring and was recently accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Materials Science and Engineering Ph.D. program. She said her undergraduate research projects, although diverse in their scientific approach, encompass her two passions: physics and environmental research.

“I’m an environmental nut in my non-physics life,” Sand said. “So I guess when I started physics I thought, what can I do that is something I care about? It’s really interesting stuff.”